The Minister's Black Veil

Amanda Onalaja

October 20, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

“The Minister’s Black Veil”, another short story written by Nathanial Hawthorne is an appeal to pathos. The narrative aims to stir emotions, especially those surrounding religion. The main character is Mr. Hooper, “a gentlemanly person, of about thirty, though still a bachelor, was dressed with due clerical neatness, as if a careful wife had starched his band, and brushed the weekly dust from his Sunday's garb”. Overall he’s depicted to readers as a well rounded preacher whom the congregation adored. He’s described as being good repetitively, “…good Parson Hooper… good Mr. Hooper… if good Mr. Hooper's face”, the story begins somewhat positively. Until readers are informed of the change in Mr. Hooper’s appearance, “There was but one thing remarkable in his appearance. Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil”. The symbolic black veil is the focus of the entire story.

Coincidently, just as the congregation in the story, reader’s are not given too much information regarding the reason for the veil or the events that lead up to its obviously unexpected arrival, however immediately the church members become flustered and afraid, “Such was the effect of this simple piece of crape, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them”. The man the community once loved and praised has suddenly become suspicious of Mr. Hooper all at the sight and mystery of his veil. For example, at the funeral of a young woman, Mr. Hooper leans over in her casket but quickly retracts and grabs his veil as if afraid the corpse might see his face. This action was seen by a member and others begin conversing, “‘Why do you look back?’ said one in the procession to his partner. ‘I had a fancy,’ replied she, ‘that the minister and the maiden's spirit were walking hand in hand.’ ‘And so had I, at the same moment,’ said the other”.

Finally at the story’s end, when Mr. Hooper’s on his deathbed, readers get an understanding of the veil’s purpose, “Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil”. With his last breath, Hooper claims the black veil was like the sin of the world, which he felt he should take on, he also criticizes the people of his hypocritical community, for shunning him like a monster because they feared the unknown. However Hooper tried to prove his point, and suffered with the weight for years, one wonders why he continued to wear the veil in the afterlife.

Young Goodman Brown

Amanda Onalaja

October 19, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

“Young Goodman Brown” is a definite Puritan tale that appeals to pathos and ethos. Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the story depicts a protagonist named Goodman Brown, a man of great religious faith. Likewise, his entire town is of Christianity, the perfect setting for a Puritan narrative. The events that take place, while fictional, happen around the time of the Salem witch trials. The trials were historic because nearly twenty men and women were accused of witchcraft and executed. This short story doesn’t focus on Puritan life, but the actual struggle as a Christian, wherein Goodman Brown’s faith is tested. The story also has a lot of symbolism, beginning with Faith, Brown’s young wife.

As the story opens, readers are introduced to Brown and his wife, whose one distinct feature is repetitive, “pink ribbons”. The emphasis of the pink ribbons led me to pay special attention to her character and what she represented. Just as her name entails, she is Brown’s faith, his faith in God and Christianity. Actually, when Brown was about to enter the forest and he met the mysterious figure he assured my assumption, “Faith kept me back a while”, was his response when the figure said he was late. Her name has two meanings; it could be his wife or his actual Faith in what he is doing. Another symbolism is the forest in its entirety, it’s said Puritans associate God with light and things holy, but the forest adventured by Brown was described as, “…a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest…It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude”. The forest must represent the devil since it’s described as lonely and dark. Not to mention the forest is the path Brown takes where he meets the witches and other evil people on his way to the dark meeting.

The appeal to ethos in the story are the biblical references, “was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent… So saying, he threw it down at her feet, where, perhaps, it assumed life, being one of the rods which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian magi”. The staff like a snake is from the Bible’s Book of Exodus where Moses directs Aaron to throw his staff before the Pharaoh’s throne. When he does, it transforms itself into a snake. The reference is ideal for a story with a Puritan setting since Puritan’s had the strict fear of God in them. It gives Hawthorne’s tale a more significant and religious standpoint instead of just being a fictional work of art.

The symbolism of “Young Goodman Brown” is the most important element of the story. When at the end, readers see that the “dream” Brown had, that depicted the evil sightings, actually changed his life. “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream”, Brown no longer enjoyed life for fear of the vision he saw. It was as if the forest represented the devil and also the Garden of Eden, and when Brown dreamt and saw all the evil of the world, he was cast out, forever to live in misery.

The Devil and Tom Walker

Amanda Onalaja

October 15, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

Washington Irving was a Gothic writer who wrote short stories such as “The Devil and Tom Walker”. The narrative is about a man so caught up in riches and wealth he sells his soul to the devil only to be condemned in the end. The protagonist, Tom Walker, is first described as, “a meagre miserly fellow”, one who is so poor and unhappy. Miserable to the point were he and his wife conspire against each other, each pining for avarice, “they were so miserly that they even conspired to cheat each other…and many and fierce were the conflicts that took place about what ought to have been common property”. The status of the couple’s marriage is seemingly important since it takes on a connection with their surroundings, “They lived in a forlorn looking house, that stood alone and had an air of starvation. A few straggling savin trees, emblems of sterility, grew near it…The house and its inmates had altogether a bad name”. True to the Gothic style, the entire setting of the story is depressing and gloomy, a direct appeal to pathos.

Aside from the eerie setting, our Tom Walker is also a shifty character himself. He and his wife often don’t get along, however when he has news of the immense wealth he could possibly earn from dealing with Old Scratch, the “black” man who symbolizes the “devil”, he tells her, “He was not prone to let his wife into his confidence; but as this was an uneasy secret, he willingly shared it with her”. This is an example of pettiness on Tom’s part. He tells his wife only to reassure himself he has gotten the better of her, but when she realizes she too will gain wealth Tom pulls back, “However Tom might have felt disposed to sell himself to the devil, he was determined not to do so to oblige his wife; so he flatly refused out of the mere spirit of contradiction”; thus driving her to see Old Scratch herself, never to return.

The death of Tom Walker’s wife was but short-lived as readers didn’t get much depth or information as to the events or reason why she dies, just a justification, “it was said a great black man with an axe on his shoulder was seen late that very evening coming out of the swamp, carrying a bundle tied in a check apron, with an air of surly triumph…for he recognized his wife's apron, and supposed it to contain the household valuables…Tom seized the check apron, but, woful sight! Found nothing but a heart and liver tied up in it”. The entire passage is ironic and cynical. It’s the greed and self-indulgence Tom constantly exhibits that leads him to suffer his ultimate fate in the story’s end, “The black man whisked him like a child astride the horse and away he galloped in the midst of a thunder storm…On searching his coffers all his bonds and mortgages were found reduced to cinders. In place of gold and silver his iron chest was filled with chips and shavings; two skeletons lay in his stable instead of his half starved horses, and the very next day his great house took fire and was burnt to the ground”. The story holds a satirical message to those who withhold greed.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Amanda Onalaja

October 11, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was written by Harriet Ann Jacobs, but under the pen name Linda Brent. The pen name probably helped Jacobs to narrate the story without feeling guilty for the tales told within. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an appeal to pathos and ethos, in which the story expresses deep emotional ties and references to God as an escape from Linda’s woes. In the opening sentence, Linda make an important remark, “I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away”, this is a critical beginning because readers learn she had a shielded childhood. Why would her parent’s refuse to instill the workings of slavery in her, why wouldn’t they prepare her for the fate she was meant to endure? I believe not knowing, or not believing she was a slave helped her to manifest strength and self worth, to know she wasn’t a piece of property. That strength was necessary to survive. Readers become somewhat attached to Linda, our young protagonist that had to grow up too fast, “Such were the unusually fortunate circumstances of my early childhood. When I was six years old, my mother died; and then, for the first time, I learned, by the talk around me, that I was a slave”.

God is referred to in the narrative, and I’m sure those who read it in Jacob’s time connected with it, “These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend”. Jacob’s doesn’t call them “human beings” or “men”, she refers to the slaves as “God-breathing machines”, equal in God’s eyes but lesser in the eyes of their masters. In her preface Jacobs wrote that she was a bit hesitant to put her autobiography out there, but hoped reading it would make a difference. Beside those who may have been too ignorant to recognize her heart, I believe her strong words fell on deaf ears, but with countless examples of the suffering of a harmless race, how could one just ignore it?

The diction in the narrative is also very strong. In one paragraph Linda make reference to a woman who had to relinquish her children to slavery, “She may be an ignorant creature, degraded by the system that has brutalized her from childhood; but she has a mother's instincts, and is capable of feeling a mother's agonies”, the term “mother’s agonies” is a phrase all can understand, for we all can reciprocate to a mother’s love. Brent coins hard hitting phrases like this throughout the piece I’ve read, “Her sufferings, afterwards, became so intense, that her mistress felt unable to stay; but when she left the room, the scornful smile was still on her lips”, imaging the pain of slaves back then, that would watch their children die and be grateful knowing they wouldn’t have to suffer through slavery, says a lot about slavery. In fact, it says a thousand words. Even though Jacobs used add-ins like this that may have had nothing to do with her personally, I’m sure it gave the audience she directed it toward back then something to think about. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl carried a defiant tone, even though I believe Jacob’s didn’t want sympathy for the obstacles she faced. She just wanted a chance to express them.

Desiree's Baby

Amanda Onalaja

October 10, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

In the short story “Desiree’s Baby”, Chopin’s usual empowerment of women varied. The narrative is an appeal to pathos because it carries a heavy weight of emotion. That being said, the emotion deprives not from just the story, but the actual character of Desiree herself. It seems that Desiree has no identity since her background is unknown, “…when Monsieur in riding through the gateway of Valmonde had found her lying asleep in the shadow of the big stone pillar… the girl's obscure origin”. Even the title of the story makes one believe it revolves around her child, but in actuality it doesn’t, it just defines her character even more. Why would Chopin, an empowered woman herself, create such an insignificant role for Desiree? However bleak it was to know of Desiree’s seemingly unimportant role or of her future, it did add to the story’s appeal as readers experienced a flux in emotions as the story unraveled.

There was an abundance of foreshadowing in the story, beginning with statements of Desiree’s unknown past and Madame Valmonde’s reaction to the baby, “Madame Valmonde had never removed her eyes from the child. She lifted it and walked with it over to the window that was lightest. She scanned the baby narrowly, then looked as searchingly at Zandrine, whose face was turned to gaze across the fields. ‘Yes, the child has grown, has changed,’ said Madame Valmonde, slowly, as she replaced it beside its mother”, she is hesitant in her response to Desiree, the same with Zandrine who both notice something is amiss, unlike the new mother, who of course can not see nor feel anything but the joys of motherhood. Everyone at L’Abri seemed to notice a problem, “It had only been a disquieting suggestion; an air of mystery among the blacks; unexpected visits from far-off neighbors who could hardly account for their coming. Then a strange, an awful change in her husband's manner, which she dared not ask him to explain”, except Desiree. Little by little it pieced together, “She looked from her child to the boy who stood beside him, and back again; over and over. “Ah!” It was a cry that she could not help”, and soon realized her child contained some Black in him. It didn’t help when she confronted her mother with her beliefs and was given a diverted answer, “My own Desiree: Come home to Valmonde; back to your mother who loves you. Come with your child”.

The events that led to Desiree’s death were upsetting but not surprising. It bothered me to know Desiree so loved her husband and was so ashamed of herself that she would rather die than to be anyone’s burden. It also occurred to me that she was contrasted by Chopin. In the story’s opening, Desiree’s described as, “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere - the idol of Valmonde…in her soft white muslins and laces…strands of her long, silky brown hair that hung about her shoulders”, altogether elegant. However, once her suspicious origin is thought to be defined as Black she takes a different persona, “Desiree had not changed the thin white garment nor the slippers which she wore. Her hair was uncovered and the sun's rays brought a golden gleam from its brown meshes”. She seems to lose her elegance when she loses her “whiteness”.

The Pit and the Pendulum

Amanda Onalaja

October 9, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

I may not have read many of Edgar Allen Poe’s works but, if anything, I know of him to be a Gothic writer. I know of his chilling stories without the use of gore and modern scare tactics. I know of his ability to create eerie situations and unexplainable events. That being said, “The Pit and the Pendulum” had to be one of his milder narratives. I say this because the story isn’t at all odd or creepy. It’s actually enjoyable in a sense that it has an underlying tone of optimism. The narrator actually struggles between an ultimatum – to die or to die. However, somehow Poe manages to find discrete ways to preserve his life and instead of focusing on the grim process of death in the Gothic era, as he usually does, he focuses on the mental process of escaping death.

“The Pit and the Pendulum” is a narrative piece, therefore it appeals to pathos. Poe wants nothing more in all of his stories than to initiate a reaction from readers. What triggered me was the unusual nature of our narrator. He is somewhat backwards in a sense that he does the opposite of what he says, “I felt that my senses were leaving me”, yet throughout the story we get a detailed sensory description of everything, from the “the tumultuous motion of the heart, and, in my ears, the sound of its beating” to the view of the dungeon, “now to be iron, or some other metal, in huge plates, whose sutures or joints occasioned the depressions”. The tone of the story, which is hopeful, helped in its appeal to pathos because readers were interested in the narrator’s determination. Our narrator doubted himself, “I had little object -- certainly no hope…”, and at some points accepted defeat, “The odor of the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils. I prayed -- I wearied heaven with prayer for its more speedy descent. I grew frantically mad, and struggled to force myself upwards against the sweep of the fearful scimitar. And then I fell suddenly calm, and lay smiling at the glittering death, as a child at some rare bauble”. Then he would think of these plans to save himself, “I had thought of forcing the blade in some minute crevice of the masonry, so as to identify my point of departure”. Basically, he struggled with utter defeat but if and when he found a shred of opportunity, he would take it, for example the quick acting way he used the chunk of meat to entice the rats. I think Poe might have enjoyed writing this piece, because it kept the audience half disheartened. It seemed our narrator escaped one death trap just to wind up in another one.

The story, overall, doesn’t dive into anything horrifying or in my eyes gory and graphic. In fact, I think Poe purposely averted that. He sets the stage in the time of the Inquisition, where he would have had the freedom to create all kinds of reference to torture. Instead, he focuses on the trials of the narrator and not the reasons of his imprisonment, or his capturers. We don’t even learn of their identities or what happened to them the exact moment he was freed. Actually, that made the story’s end somewhat disappointing. It seemed that Poe was so unused to a happy ending; he didn’t know how to do it! Poe just left our narrator on the brink of death, seconds away from falling into the pit, and then just saves him and ends the story. The ending was so untraditional, but welcomed, that Poe painfully made it brief.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Amanda Onalaja

October 9, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

If one has never read a piece by Edgar Allen Poe then surely you’ve heard of him. His eerie style of writing can be traced back to the Gothic Age. Poe examines the human psyche in his odd yet carefully pieced tales. Many if not all of his stories challenge the limits of your average mystery and actually dive into the mentality of his characters. That can also be said about “The Fall of the House of Usher”. The story was somewhat challenging to understand but piece by piece I believed I figured out the underlying angst. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe uses the common myth of being buried alive to scare his readers. It actually makes me wonder the mental state of Poe, who wrote so many horrifying stories and I really do wonder what kind of menacing images he had thought of to base so many narratives on them.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is if anything a definite appeal to pathos. The story carries a supernatural tone from beginning to end, “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher”. The opening sentence seemed to set the entire setting of the story. The use of depressing imagery such as, “dull, dark, soundless, oppressively low, alone, dreary, shades, and melancholy”, convey the exact factors needed in a Gothic story like this. In fact, the entire first paragraph is used to address the haunted looking manor of Usher.

Aside from the story’s obvious tone, Poe’s credibility also had a factor in this story. Poe likes to shroud his readers with an air of mystery, and for one thing, we never got to know our narrator’s identity, when or where these events took place, or even what inclined the narrator to accept this invitation. Furthermore, we learn that the narrator and Usher are supposed to be childhood friends, but it seems the narrator knows little about him, “Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend”. The vagueness of the story adds to the tone. There’s also a peculiar connection between the house and it’s residents, “in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain…the “House of Usher”—an appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and the family mansion”. It’s almost as if the house exists through its single line of descendents. It’s practically foreshadowed by Usher himself, “‘I shall perish,’ said he, ‘I must perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results.’”.

As assumed, there is a plot in Poe’s madness, the relationship between Madeline, Roderick, and the house. “…and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I learned that the deceased and himself had been twins…”, at nearly the narrative’s end we learn that not only are they siblings but twins which makes the story’s climax much more understandable. Because Madeline is physically sick, Roderick is practically mentally sick, as in what afflicts one twin afflicts the other. It’s almost a weird psychic connection between the two which becomes even more prominent when Roderick announces his sister’s mistaken burial, “We have put her living in the tomb! …Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door”. In her last resolve Madeline falls upon Roderick, scaring him to death, which frightened our narrator, causing him to flee from the manor before it could collapse, enclosing its last remaining inhabitants.